Venice Film Review: ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’

lifestyle WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 Music & Movies Venice film review: ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’ n a Venice film festival lineup full of cynicism, sui- riage, all of the characters here are adults. Most of tal has allowed Andersson to manipulate his footage Down on their luck, Sam and Jonathan bill them- cide and despair, who would expect the new Roy them have fewer days ahead of them than they do the way directors such as David Fincher and Ruben selves as being in the “entertainment business,” selling IAndersson picture-”the final part of a trilogy on behind, but none seem to truly appreciate the gift of Ostlund do, using their locked-down cameras to make plastic vampire teeth and a corny laughing device being a human being” to be the most life affirming? living. Andersson does, and he wants us to recognize invisible nips and tucks. Regardless of the method, engineered to amuse. These two friends look like they And yet, from its comic title to the wistful smile that it, too. “Pigeon” is a master class in comic timing, employing haven’t smiled in a long, long time. Emerging as the accompanies its over- too-soon last shot, Andersson’s Right up front, the helmer presents three “meet- pacing and repetition with the skill of a practiced con- most well-rounded character in the entire trilogy, delightfully odd “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting ings with death”: a husband who suffers a heart attack on Existence” finds the Swedish master of comic while struggling to uncork a wine bottle, an old lady absurdity feeling downright generous, perched at a convinced she can take her handbag to heaven and a comfortable enough distance from this coterie of sad- cruise-ship passenger who collapses at the lunch sacks and lonelyhearts to recognize the humor in counter, having just paid for his meal (sorry, no such painful subjects as mortality, aging, unpaid refunds). More playful than his fellow Swede, Ingmar debts and unrequited love. Bergman, who famously challenged Death to a game Just last year, Ethan Hawke was quoted as referring of chess, Andersson recognizes that there’s no cheat- to “Before Sunrise” and its two sequels as “the lowest- ing mortality-though sometimes we can speed it grossing trilogy in the history of motion pictures.” But along, like the suicidal CEO glimpsed later in the film. even he probably hasn’t bought tickets to Andersson’s Best just to have a sense of humor about it. incomparable triptych-rapturously received by critics, though auds have proven all but allergic, clearing Slow-motion barely $100,000 so far in the US. The result of four Some critics have mistaken Andersson’s movies as years of rigorous planning and meticulous execution, “depressing” (while others have incorrectly labeled “Pigeon” could fare slightly better than the first two him a “commercials director,” failing to understand installments, “Songs From the Second Floor” and “You, that he accepted those commissions to finance his the Living” (both of which bowed at Cannes), but only painstaking feature ventures). “Droll” would be a bet- just. At least arthouse programmers can now get cre- ter word for the artist’s attitude toward the washed- ative, treating Andersson’s now-complete tragicomic out blue and beige world he presents. His characters opus (a decade and a half in the making) as the spe- wear white face makeup to enhance their pallor, cial event that it is. sleepwalking zombielike through their lives. Even the “Pigeon” is by far the most accessible of the three young couple seen necking on the beach appear to films, offering a continuity through line in the form of be doing so in slow-motion. novelty salesmen Sam (Nils Westblom) and Jonathan In the interval since his last film, Andersson has (Holger Andersson), a comedic duo who’d be right at embraced hi-def digital cameras, which benefit his home in a Samuel Beckett or Tom Stoppard play. Here, aesthetic enormously. Now, the helmer can ensure the Laurel and Hardy-esque pair appear in nearly one- that even the far-distant background of every scene third of the film’s 37 fixed-camera compositions, a appears in sharp focus. Though the colors are dreary series of chuckle-inducing tableaux which clock in at and the characters numb, compositionally speaking, just under three minutes apiece on average. there’s not a single dull frame in the entire film. Andersson thinks like a painter, following Edward From left, actors Nils Studying the faces Hopper’s example of enhancing loneliness by depict- cert pianist. Jonathan suffers from melancholy spells, culminating Westblom, Holger Each of these shots serves as a nearly self-con- ing it within a greater context. He shoots rooms at an in a disturbing dream sequence, where colonial sol- Andersson, director Roy tained comic vignette, like a cross between a “Where’s angle, using perspective to direct our eyes toward the ‘Entertainment business’ diers lead African slaves into a giant copper instru- Andersson, producer Waldo” cartoon and a Gregory Crewdson photograph, activity in adjacent rooms or on the other side of win- Early on, outside a dance studio where the flamen- ment that produces a beautiful sound as the people Pernilla Sandstrom and line and the best way to approach them is as you might a dows, instead of observing everything directly on co teacher gets a little too hands-on with one of her inside are being roasted alive. What a curious species producer Johan Carlsson large-canvas painting or a Jacques Tati film: Study the axis, the way his similarly detail-oriented American pupils, a lady janitor says into her phone, “I’m happy are homo sapiens. Judging by the film, we wage war, pose for photographers dur- faces, soak up the details, allow the eye to wander namesake, “Grand Budapest Hotel” helmer Wes, insists to hear you’re doing fine.” (Mobile phones are a rare torture animals and take advantage of one another, ing a photo call for A Pigeon and the mind to free-associate. Where other directors on doing. nod to modern life in a film that appears to be set in a and yet Andersson assures us, things could be worse. Sat on a Branch Reflecting seek out exceptional moments, Andersson endeavors In “Pigeon,” people go about their business in the timeless retro past-and where King Charles XII and his In the grand scheme of things, he’s happy to show on Existence at the 71st edi- to capture the poetry of the mundane. dreary little boxes of their lives, but they don’t behave infantry are prone to drop in unannounced, like char- we’re doing fine. — Reuters tion of the Venice Film With the exception of one scene, in which twin like marionettes on strings, but almost like actors on a acters in a Monty Python sketch.) The cleaning Festival in Venice, Italy, yes- girls blow bubbles from the balcony of a nondescript stage, occasionally turning to address the audience. woman’s line becomes a hollow platitude echoed by terday. —AP apartment building, and another that observes a “Today I feel kind,” announces a cheesemonger, while many of the characters by film’s end, and yet, there’s plumpish new mom (Andersson loves his ladies with a his wife gestures to the audience to let us know she something to be said for merely surviving in such an little meat on their bones) cooing over her baby car- thinks he’s crazy. It’s unclear whether the shift to digi- absurd world as this. Versatile Viggo speaks French in ‘Far From Men’ s there a language Viggo Mortensen doesn’t speak? The much as Mohamed is.” The movie has been praised in Venice, multilingual Danish-American actor has performed in where some see it as a leading contender for the top prize, the Ieverything from English to Elvish. Now he tackles French - Golden Lion. Its theme - the fragility and importance of com- as well the power of silence - in Venice Film Festival entry “Far munication across barriers - is close to Mortensen’s heart. “The From Men,” a stark story about two men, a schoolteacher and world is becoming more polarized ... even though the possi- a murderer, caught up in Algeria’s war for independence. bility for global communication has never been more ample, Mortensen also learned some Arabic for the film by French more conducive to understanding one another,” the actor said. director David Oelhoffen. So how many tongues has he used “I think people use the new means of communication for fur- onscreen? “Lakota, Elvish - two kinds of Elvish - Dwarvish, ther underlining their particular way of looking at things. Arabic, French, Danish, Russian,” he listed. “I think I spoke Physical thread Swedish one time, German, Spanish.” It’s possible he may have “So you become more isolated ... even though it ought to left out one or two. Mortensen - tanned, muscular and radiat- be the other way around.”Talking, in myriad languages, is a ing energy while meeting reporters in Venice - said he choos- feature of many of Mortensen’s movies. So, the actor says, is May Myat Noe, winner of Miss Asia Pacific World Super talent 2014, talks to the media es roles for the chances they give him to study, learn and gain walking. “It’s probably a coincidence but maybe not: I’ve done during a press conference in Yangon yesterday. — AFP new skills. a lot of movies where I walk a lot.” Mortensen mentions “The “You only can improve if you’re challenged,” he said.

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